Don't shoot!

I'm not the type of person to tell someone they are a bad parent, I don't know what in the hell I'm doing, how could I tell someone else THEY are doing it wrong. That being said, let me throw something out to you and see what you think. A little background about the Des Moines area right now. Over the last 3 or 4 months, there have been 6 or 7 attempted abductions of children in and around Des Moines. Rumor has it that some of the cases may be related in a group effort. The police did locate one individual in a town outside of DM and he was arrested, so hopefully that community will be a little safer. Then, Sunday afternoon, I was driving to the grocery store, when I saw 3 kids standing on the side of the road with a lemonade stand. Not a big deal, but a little setup on the area. The road I was on doesn't actually have houses on it, they are on side streets off the main road, so these kids weren't in "front" of their house. Again, three of them, not a big deal. On the way home, I passed the area again, this time, one small boy, by himself, attempting to get strange cars to pull close to him so he can reach his hand close to theirs to hand them a cup, probably in the window of the car. I know a lemonade stand is a right of passage for kids, my kids have had one and have wanted to have more. I know they can learn a few business principals in this basic of businesses. Here's the thing, there are too many crazy psychos out there and I'm just not going to let my kids stand on the curb and invite strangers to get closer to them. It's hard being a parent, trying to decided when and where you can cut the kids some rope, let them wander away from the safety of mom and dad and not be a worry wart. My kids aren't old enough for me to do that, at least not in my eyes. If you are from the Des Moines area, for any length of time, you know the story of Johnny Gosch and Eugene Martin, two paperboys that were kidnapped years ago, while doing their routes. This happens everywhere, even safe DM Iowa. I just don't want to look back and say, "I shouldn't have let them do that." I'm going to do that enough, but hopefully they will still be alive and I can tell them I'm sorry.

This weekend, I took the boys into the back yard with my old Red Ryder BB gun and showed them how to shoot. We are still working on the safety thing, boys seem to think pointing a gun at your brother is pretty funny. They can't even cock the single pump gun, so I have to do it for them, so I'm right on them so they don't shoot something they aren't supposed to. I set up 4 pop cans at a distance of about 25 feet. I taught them how to use the site and gave Makiah a few shots to try and hit something, no good. I turned the gun over to Mason and showed him how to use the site and he proceeded to hit a can on 3 of his first 4 shots, not bad. I went back to Makiah and after a few more explanations, he was hitting cans on almost every shot. I only had a few BB's, since they were still in the gun from the last time I shot it 15 years ago and I have since lost any packages of BB's, so the shooting just lasted a bit until we were out. I was amazed at how well they did for having never shot a gun and they don't play any gun video games, moms orders. I don't think Marcy was very happy with the whole gun thing, but this is what boys do, including Mason and Makiah(that was a reference to me, since Marcy says she has 4 boys). I also have a BB pistol, so I broke that out so they could shoot it, without BB's since I'm out, and they liked that to. Mom REALLY isn't happy about the pistol, but boys love them. I'm being sure to teach them safety, and as long as they don't shoot each other, themselves or any of the neighborhood animals, I think we will be OK. I do have a sandbox shitting cat that I MIGHT let them take a few shots at.